Jonah Matranga
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Jonah Sonz Matranga (born Jonah Rzadzinski Matranga, August 11, 1969, Brookline, Massachusetts) is a singer, songwriter and guitarist who has released a variety of solo material under both his own name and onelinedrawing, and has previously been part of the bands Far and New End Original (an anagram of "onelinedrawing"). His most recent band-related project was Gratitude, who put out their debut album in March 2005, but fell apart the following November. He now continues to work, under his own name, as a solo artist with a new album in the works.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Jonah Rzadzinski Matranga grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. He left in 1987 to attend Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he majored in English and began making music by himself. After graduation, he moved up to Sacramento to form Far in 1991.
They made four albums, including the classic Water and Solutions, before disbanding in December 1998. During this time, Jonah married in April 1994, and his daughter was born that August. He divorced two years later. In 1999, he moved to the Bay Area to remain close to his daughter. He currently lives in San Francisco.
[edit] Solo Career
After the demise of Far, Jonah began to perform with an R2-D2 drum machine and touring under the name onelinedrawing, which had been the name of a cassette he had released on Kevin Seconds's Pop Rockit Records. He released two EPs that year (Sketchy EPs #1 and #2) of bedroom demos.
Much of his solo material has also been self-published, though often subsequently distributed through labels such as Crank! and Corrupted Image. However, his two full-length onelinedrawing albums, Visitor (2002) and The Volunteers (2004) were released by Jade Tree Records.
Matranga retired the onelinedrawing moniker in 2004 and now intends to put all future solo releases under his name. In December of 2004, Jonah began offering custom-made recordings of songs by himself or others through his website, in order to offer a one-of-a-kind musical artpiece. Information about this and his many other ideas can be found on ([1]) Matranga's website, where he can also be contacted personally.
In 2005, Matranga put out Sketchy EP #3, as well as a DVD, There's a Lot in Here, both of which are available on a sliding scale ("pay what you can") from ([2]) Matranga's personally-maintained online store. The DVD There's a Lot in Here was re-released with a bonus CD on February 21, 2006, through Equal Vision Records.
[edit] Guest Appearances
Jonah has contributed backup vocals to War All The Time (by Thursday) on the track Steps Ascending, and to the Deftones's acoustic remix version of Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) and a cover of Sade's song No Ordinary Love, both of which the Deftones released as b-sides (also, several Deftones members contributed to Far's cover of Jawbox's Savory).
He has also contributed to previous Matt Nathanson releases, a song called Swamp for Tweaker (a.k.a. Chris Vrenna, former member of Nine Inch Nails), which ended up a b-side for the album The Attraction to All Things Uncertain, and to the two Fort Minor songs: Red To Black and Where'd You Go, where he also appears in the video.
Matranga's name does not appear on the title card before and after the video, though he is credited on the album. He attributed his video anonymity (jokingly) to his name being too long and "music biz yuck". He often expresses his negative opinion of the music industry's business ethics.
In 2005 he co-wrote Calling for Taproot, the first single from their album Blue-Sky Research. He also appeared on Food & Liquor, the debut album for Lupe Fiasco, on the track entitled The Instrumental, which appeared on the Madden 07 soundtrack.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Solo Releases
- Jonah Sonz Matranga - Songs I Hope My Mom Will Like (1994)
- Jonah Matranga - onelindrawing (1998)
- onelinedrawing - Sketchy EP #1 (1999)
- onelinedrawing - Sketchy EP #2 (2000)
- onelinedrawing/Sense Field - Split EP (2000)
- onelinedrawing/Rival Schools -Rival Schools United by Onelinedrawing (2001)
- onelinedrawing - Always New Jan-Jun 2000 (online 2000, CD 2001)
- onelinedrawing - Always New Jul-Dec 2000 (online 2000, CD 2002)
- onelinedrawing - Always New 2001 (online 2001 only)
- onelinedrawing - Visitor (2002 Jade Tree)
- onelinedrawing - The Volunteers (2004 Jade Tree)
- Jonah Matranga - There's A Lot In Here (DVD) (2005)
- Jonah Matranga - Sketchy EP #3 (2005)
- Jonah Matranga/Frank Turner - Split 12 inch vinyl (2006)
[edit] Band Releases
- Far - Sweat A River, Live No Lies (1991)
- Far - Listening Game (1992)
- Far - Quick EP (1994)
- Far - Tin Cans With Strings To You (1996 Epic/Immortal)
- Far - Soon EP (1997 Epic/Immortal)
- Far - Water & Solutions (1998 Epic/Immortal)
- New End Original - Lukewarm single (2001 Jade Tree)
- New End Original - Thriller (2001 Jade Tree)
- Gratitude - Gratitude (2005 Atlantic)
- Gratitude - Drive Away single (2005 Atlantic)
- Gratitude - This Is The Part EP (written as This Is Th EP Art) (2005)
